Though this is considered as belonging to the same "Taiwan Black Movies" genre as the directors earlier NEVER TOO LATE TO REPENT, the two movies could not be more different. Where REPENT was solidly of the"social-realism" school of filmmaking, REVENGER is pure exploitation fun. To begin with, you just gotta love a film that begins with a voice-over by a woman telling a tale of a sad, dramatic incident, spoken over images of several women in colorful leotards wiggling and shimmying in an exercise studio.
Among other entertaining elements are exploitative shots of gymnasts competing on the uneven bars, a woman with a hidden tube tied around her waist inside of which she keeps a venomous snake, and a woman strapped to a spread-eagle'd crucifix and then turned upside down so that syrup of some sort oozes over her crotch inviting ants to invade.
Further, there's also a great scene (have I seen it elsewhere?) where a woman needs to roll a total equal to or lower than a "3" with 3 dice, and ends up rolling a "2"... I won't reveal how! There's also a guy who goes to a whorehouse secretly looking for a particular woman, but after unsuccessfully describing her to the Madame, and being brought the wrong woman - he asks: "Do you have anyone with shorter hair", prompting the Madame to reply: "Can I get you a man instead?" The film also includes several references to other movies. One of these can be found in the soundtrack, which includes a slowed down version of Bernard Herrmann's score for TAXI DRIVER. Then there's a detective who wears a POPEYE cap, a possible reference to Hackman's character in The French Connection? Plus, there's a long, long, long scene in a Japanese public park taken during an actual festival of some sort with multiple performers and audio tracks coming at the viewer all at the same time, much as in an Altman film. Hilariously, one of the performances caught by the filmmakers in this segment is of a miniature KISS with tiny versions of the band members bodies sewn onto a large black sheet and holes cut out at the neck for four teenage Japanese performers to stick their face-painted heads through and "play" some rock n' roll!
Among other entertaining elements are exploitative shots of gymnasts competing on the uneven bars, a woman with a hidden tube tied around her waist inside of which she keeps a venomous snake, and a woman strapped to a spread-eagle'd crucifix and then turned upside down so that syrup of some sort oozes over her crotch inviting ants to invade.
Further, there's also a great scene (have I seen it elsewhere?) where a woman needs to roll a total equal to or lower than a "3" with 3 dice, and ends up rolling a "2"... I won't reveal how! There's also a guy who goes to a whorehouse secretly looking for a particular woman, but after unsuccessfully describing her to the Madame, and being brought the wrong woman - he asks: "Do you have anyone with shorter hair", prompting the Madame to reply: "Can I get you a man instead?" The film also includes several references to other movies. One of these can be found in the soundtrack, which includes a slowed down version of Bernard Herrmann's score for TAXI DRIVER. Then there's a detective who wears a POPEYE cap, a possible reference to Hackman's character in The French Connection? Plus, there's a long, long, long scene in a Japanese public park taken during an actual festival of some sort with multiple performers and audio tracks coming at the viewer all at the same time, much as in an Altman film. Hilariously, one of the performances caught by the filmmakers in this segment is of a miniature KISS with tiny versions of the band members bodies sewn onto a large black sheet and holes cut out at the neck for four teenage Japanese performers to stick their face-painted heads through and "play" some rock n' roll!
